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How to use the Chase Sapphire Preferred 100,000-point bonus before the offer ends

For a limited time, you can earn a whopping 100,000 bonus points when you open a new Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and spend $5,000 within the first three months of account opening.

Chase Ultimate Rewards points are a valuable rewards currency for frequent travelers with several redemption options to fit how you like to travel. With a sum as big as 100,000 points banked in your account, you can guarantee major savings when you book your next vacation. Here’s how:

Chase Sapphire Preferred Card details

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

  • Annual fee
    $95
  • Welcome offer
    Ending soon: Earn 100,000 bonus points after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months
  • Rewards rate
    • 5x points on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
    • 3x points on dining, select streaming services, and online groceries
    • 2x points on all other travel purchases
    • 1x points on all other purchases
  • Benefits
    • Points are worth 25% more when you redeem for airfare, hotels, car rentals and cruises through Chase Travel
    • Earn up to $50 in annual statement credits for hotel stays purchased through Chase Travel
    • On every account anniversary, earn bonus points equal to 10% of your total purchases made the previous year

Read our full review of the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card.

How much are 100,000 Chase Sapphire points worth?

The exact value of your 100,000 bonus points will depend on how you redeem them.

For most credit card travel rewards, you should aim for a redemption value of around 1 cent per point. That makes 100,000 points worth about $1,000 — not bad for a card with a $95 annual fee. But one of the great things about the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card is its variety of redemption options, including some that can increase your value beyond that standard.

For example, Chase itself values the 100,000-point card bonus at $1,250 toward future travel. That’s because the issuer offers a 25% boost when you use points to book trips through Chase Travel. So, each point is worth 1.25 cents (or $1,250 total) when you redeem this way.

Your points can also increase in value when you transfer them to travel partners. While you won’t get any boost just for transferring, travel programs typically have dynamic pricing. That means your points could potentially be worth more than 1 cent each based on your travel details. Dynamic award pricing usually varies depending on when you book, your travel dates, your destination, and other factors. You can get the best value for your points by keeping your plans flexible so you can take advantage of award deals.

Read more: Who is eligible for the Chase Sapphire Preferred 100k bonus?

How to use the Chase Sapphire Preferred 100,000-point bonus

These are all your options for using your 100,000 Chase Sapphire Preferred points after you earn the sign-up bonus.

Book travel with Chase

One of the most simple and valuable redemptions for your 100,000 welcome bonus points is using them to book travel through Chase Travel℠. Like we said above, each Chase Sapphire Preferred point is worth 1.25 cents through the Chase Travel portal — a 25% boost from the standard redemption value.

You can use Chase Travel to book flights, hotels, rental cars, tourist activities and tours, and even cruises with your points. While flights and hotels are a common way to book through the portal, don’t forget all of the other parts of your vacation you can cover too.

For example, let’s say you and a friend want to go to Orlando this fall for a theme park visit.

You could use a portion of your points to purchase two-day Park to Park tickets at Universal Orlando, which gives you access to both Universal Studios Florida and Universal Islands of Adventure for two days within a five-day window.

After purchasing your Universal tickets, you’ll still have 39,682 points of the 100,000-point bonus left to cover more of your vacation.

Maybe you live in Dallas and want to fly into Orlando for your trip. You can book round-trip, Main Cabin airfare for two travelers between Oct. 7 and 11 for a total of 59,738 points.

Since you don’t have that many points left after booking your Universal tickets, you could use the rest of your 39,682 points to cover a portion of the airfare and pay the remaining $249.72 in cash.

Or you might instead opt to use the remaining points toward your hotel stay in Orlando. For a four-night stay between Oct. 7 and 11, you could book a room at the Four Points by Sheraton near Universal and cover the cost using points.

In total, the hotel cost is $466.85 — but with the 25% boost, you can cover that in full with about 37,300 points. You can use your 100,000 bonus points to cover both your hotel stay and Universal park tickets and still have a couple thousand points left in your account.

Related: Best credit cards for Disney vacations

Transfer to travel partners

Transferring points to Chase’s travel partners is another great way to redeem them, especially if you have status with an airline or hotel partner or you simply prefer to book travel directly.

Chase Ultimate Rewards points transfer to partners at a 1:1 value, so you’ll still have 100,000 points with the partner program after you transfer the welcome bonus. Here’s a full list of current Chase transfer partners:

  • Aer Lingus AerClub

  • Air Canada Aeroplan

  • British Airways Executive Club

  • Emirates Skywards

  • Flying Blue Air France KLM

  • Iberia Plus

  • IHG Rewards Club

  • JetBlue TrueBlue

  • Marriott Bonvoy

  • Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer

  • Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards

  • United MileagePlus

  • Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

  • World of Hyatt

As an example of how to use transferred partner points, let’s say you’re planning a summer trip from your home near Atlanta to Boston for the Fourth of July holiday weekend. For a family of four with two children under age 14, you could book a United Airlines flight with a quick layover both ways.

That’s a total of 84,400 for all four tickets, plus $44.80 in taxes and fees. If you book four tickets on the same flights using dollars, you would pay $1,105 (including taxes and fees) — making this a great redemption to boost the value of your points.

For this trip, you could choose to transfer the full 100,000 points to United MileagePlus and use the rest for your next flight. Or you could transfer only 85,000 points to cover the cost of this trip and keep the rest in your Chase Ultimate Rewards account, since you can choose to transfer any amount in 1,000-point increments.

Look for transfer bonuses

Your points may grow even more valuable when you transfer to a partner program offering a transfer bonus. Through April 30, you can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to IHG One Rewards with an 80% bonus. That increases your 100,000 points to 180,000 points when you make this transfer.

IHG doesn’t get the greatest redemption value for its rewards points, but this could be a great deal for fans of IHG brands, which include InterContinental, Kimpton, Holiday Inn, Staybridge Suites, and more.

Let’s say you’re planning a trip to Europe in late summer and want to spend a few days in London. You could use those 180,000 points to book three weekend nights at the Hotel Indigo in Kensington for 160,000 IHG One points.

If you were to book the same hotel in dollars, you would pay about $905 for the three nights including taxes and fees. This way, you’ll cover the full cost and still have 20,000 IHG One Rewards points left over.

Related: How I used credit card perks and rewards for a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Japan and South Korea

More ways to redeem

Beyond those valuable travel redemptions, there are a few more ways to use your welcome bonus points.

  • Cash back: Redeem for a statement credit or direct deposit into your bank account for a value of 1 cent per point.

  • Pay yourself back: Put your points toward statement credits for specific purchases on your card. This redemption is generally worth 1 cent per point, but Chase occasionally offers Pay Yourself Back bonuses. Through June 30, for example, you’ll get a 25% boost when you redeem your points toward donations with select charities.

  • Gift cards: Redeem points for gift card purchases with Chase. These are typically worth 1 cent per point, but you can find some specific gift cards on sale for a higher redemption value.

  • Pay with points: Use your points to make purchases on Amazon.com or PayPal for a 0.8 cent per point value.

  • Apple purchases: Buy Apple products through Chase Ultimate Rewards using points at a rate of 1 cent per point.

  • Chase Dining: Book prepaid reservations, prepaid take-out orders, and experiences with points for a value of 1 cent per point.

  • Experiences: Redeem points for tickets to live entertainment, sporting events, and more for a 1 cent per point value.

This article was edited by Rebecca McCracken


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